Presenting petitions in preston

Local campaigners in Lancashire have been helping to change lives by presenting their petition for more Changing Places toilets to MPs in Ribble Valley. MP Nigel Evans was present at the event and has pledged his support for the Changing Places campaign. We are looking to change national building regulations, but local campaigns can have a real and immediate impact on the day to day lives of people who need Changing Places toilets.

With this in mind, the group has also presented their petition to Preston city council’s Ken Hudson and mayor of Preston Keith Sedgwick as well as the MP for Lancaster, Ben Wallace.

The Preston and District Changing Places group, led by Rosemary McLean gathered almost 200 signatures during Learning Disability Week and is calling on the local authority to install more fully accessible toilets in the region. They join over 70 groups who collected almost 10,000 petitions during learning disability week to help put pressure on the government to ensure more fully accessible toilets are installed around the country.

Rosemary’s son Christian and daughter Hollie have profound and multiple learning disabilities and are wheelchair users. They both need 24-hour support with all aspects of care, including going to the toilet. They both wear continence pads which need to be changed in a Changing Places toilet, where there is a height adjustable changing bench. They both need two people to transfer them, as well as a hoist. This has meant she understands as much as anyone, the difference that Changing Places toilets can make to everyday family life. Rosemary has been fully behind the campaign since it started and wanted to show the important difference Changing Places can make to people having the freedom to enjoy the day to day activities many of us take for granted. She said “I feel very passionate about this campaign and the rights of people with disabilities to be able to go out into the community as and when they want, without having to be subjected to the indignity of lack of suitable toileting facilities.”

The changing places consortium is presenting its own petition in November as the government launches its consultation on the future of building regulation part M. We are calling on changes to these regulations to give the 230,000 people and their families, who need changing places toilets the chance to enjoy the freedom that anybody else in the UK takes for granted.

If you have been collecting petitions please let your local press know when you will be presenting it to the local authority.

Download a template press release (pdf) that will help to let everyone know just how important Changing Places can be in the lives of so many people around the country.